In 1979 at 2 years old, I won a Halloween costume competition. My mom bought me the Wonder Woman underoos, red tights, and shoes, and my Aunt Viv sewed me an amazing Red Sparkly cape with blue sparkle stars. It was made so well my little sister was Wonder Woman a few years down the road, too.

That was my first and last costume win, but the love of superheroes has remained.

In 2000, I married a boy who shares my love of superheroes and the fantastic. Then in 2012, we gave birth to a superhero.

This weekend we manned an exhibitor booth at the Inaugeral Cincinnati Comic Con at the NKY Convention Center. I worried over how Drake would tolerate 24 hours out in public with large crowds. He was awesome. The organizers were awesome. The artists were freaking AMAZING. The crowds were friendly and excited to be there.

I didn’t get to see any panels because I was working, but my husband went one on pen and ink in comics. He really enjoyed it.

Great job, Overlord organizers and Henchman volunteers! We’re looking forward to next year.

Saturday D turned 17 months actual, so we woke up early and had a morning zoo adventure. It was the first time we managed to make it to the zoo right at opening. We scored a premium covered spot in the main lot.

We have a zoo membership so we skipped the ticket line and headed for the map to see what we’d like to do for a few hours. We decided on the Insect House, Carousel, and Manatee Springs as our main attractions.

The Insect House adventure started out with a scale that gives your weight in bugs! Wouldn’t that make a fun change from NICU stays measured in grams?

Drake was 2 million bugs.

Daddy was 32 million bugs.

Mommy was 20 million bugs.

We took our first family ride on the carousel. The elephant was a bit too big, but the zebra was just right!

I didn’t take any pictures in Manatee Springs. I was too fascinated by the zookeeper presentation. Confession, I ADORE going to the zoo. 🙂

Cincinnati Zoo is one of only two zoos outside of Florida that host manatees. They are a manatee rehabilitation center which means their manatees stay for a short time to get well and get reintroduced to the wild. Betsy and Woodstock are scheduled to leave sometime this fall. Manatees have small eyes and live in water that is hard to see in, so they have tons of hairs like cat whiskers all over their bodies that help them navigate in the ocean. Yay fun facts!

After the manatees, it was time to head for lunch. I have to say the nursing/family suite at the Cincinnati Zoo is also an amazing space. It’s air conditioned has comfy sofas, a great changing space, and toys for toddlers. We made a side stop for a diaper change before heading to the car. As we left, we noted the LOOOONGG lines that we avoided by going early.

We finished up with some lunch at Izzy’s Deli, and shopping at Tuesday Morning where we scored this fun plaything…

This afternoon is our first PT visit. Time to get to work! It’s hard to believe he’ll be 2 in 7 months, and then we stop adjusting for prematurity.

What a great day of fun with family and friends! And how inspiring and healing!

I really wish I had made the time to attend the family team poster event sponsored by our NICU. That display of posters for angel babies and other NICU grad families was probably the single most powerful thing I have witnessed since last February. Such beautiful loving tributes.

Amazing to see so many preemie, NICU, and birth defect affected families coming together for a cause they feel so strongly about.

Plus, I got to stand next to a NFL player!

The best part was of course the great snapshots of our son getting to enjoy a large event for the first time.

Family Team Photo

Waiting For Start

Ominous Clouds, 4 miles to go

Check Point NKY, halfway

Crossing Bridge from NKY back to Cincinnati

Crossing the finish line!

Good Sam was our NICU hospital

# of Premature births in Ohio

Why We Fight

It was a celebration, and I needed it. We exceeded our team goal by $200!